To test my hypothesis, I conducted a survey, which was adminstered to a total of twenty people, containing a total of fifteen questions on the topics of smoking, illicit drugs, and alcohol. The questions were mainly aimed to find out how often my peers partake in these substances and why they do or don't.

The survey also questioned if the person thought the consumption of these substances caused a problem in society, and if they did, what could be done to help improve the situation

When conducting my survey, I tried my best to use a valid sampling of the population. To do this, I split the survey among genders, giving 10 to males and 10 to females. I also tried to administer it among several different "cliques" and not just my own. I made sure to give the survey to people in the 13-19 age range, so that my results, over all, would be representative of America's youth today.

A lot of other data was also obtained from the survey. For example, it shows that 90% of males think illicit drug use is the biggest problem with today's youth. On the other hand, only 40% of females agreed. 40% of females said that alcohol consumption was the biggest problem, either because people aren't as aware of it's dangers as they are with drugs, it posed more of a danger to the immediate environment, or more people partake in drinking. With the guys, though, they said use of illicit drugs was a problem because they are the most fatal and the easiest to obtain.

When compared to government statistics on the topic, my results were fairly accurate. I found that 20% of females smoke, while 19% of females in twelfth grade smoked in the year 2001. I also found that only 10% of males smoke, and government statistics show that 18% of males smoked in 2001. This proves the trend that more females smoke than males. Other official statistics prove that males are more likely to drink than females are, as well. They show that 36% of twelfth grade males drink, while only 24% of females in the same grade do. Lastly, statistics have proven that males are more likely to take part in illicit drug use, too. 28% of males in twelfth grade have reported illicit drug use in 2001, however, only 24% of females have.

When posed with the question of what should be done, if anything, to decrease the consumption of cigarettes, drug

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 967
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)